Daily Archives: November 28, 2007

I’ve been meaning to write about my first trip to Bluestem since surgery….

They have an insane 1/2-off the lounge menu happy hour deal going on right now, so I met up with a friend of mine last Tuesday night. First of all, this is the deal of the century foodwise. Especially since they have added regular entrees to their lounge menu. This was my 2nd restaurant visit in three months, so I was pretty excited to have some “real” food. We ordered some appetizers……..a cheese plate, wagyu tartare and smoked salmon. They have an exceptional cheese selection right now, btw. I think I had two bites of the salmon, a bite of the tartare, and about three small tastes of cheese….then I had to take a break. The worst thing I could have done would have been to eat too quickly and get that super-indigestion in a public place….so the delay helped me to pace myself and let satiety sink in. I did have a glass of white wine, which I had no idea would lead to my next big post-surgery “revelation”…… Basically, I drank about 1/2 of my glass before I spied some Ridge Zin that I was curious to try……and I lamented the fact out loud that I probably shouldn’t drink more than one glass of wine since I was driving. About ten minutes later I realized, and I know this will sound stupid to most people….if I don’t drink all of the first glass I can still try the Ridge. That probably doesn’t sound like rocket science, but when you are coming from a lifetime of eating and drinking yourself into oblivion it’s not like you’ve ever opted to leave anything behind in your wine glass. So that’s what I did, the wine was great, and I felt like I had truly grown up a little bit in the process. Not the most cost effective way to drink wine in a restaurant, BUT when apps are half price and you still end up taking enough home for two more meals…..it’s no biggie. In addition to the apps I got a really good pasta and chicken dish that I had 2 bites of before boxing the rest. So there you have it……the last time I was at Bluestem I consumed an entire thirteen course meal with wine pairings, and this time I had maybe eight bites of food with enough left over from one app and one entree for two more full meals. Progress!

For Thanksgiving week I did not lose a ton of weight, but I still lost over two pounds…overall I’m pretty happy about that considering I did “overeat” by including things like mashed potatoes into my diet. I never ate to a point where I had that bloated full feeling, but since it was a holiday week, between food from family and my own comfort-food concoctions I did have too much starch. A lot of meats bother my stomach much of the time, so potatoes and pasta will be something to watch out for going forward. I don’t think I take in that many extra calories because portions are so small, BUT there is also a lack of that “full” feeling you get from proteins….so you definitely end up eating more just because you can. The nice thing is that if I don’t have it in the house I’m probably not going to get desperate enough to seek it out. I’ve experimented with a few fast food options like grilled chicken wraps, wings, fish, etc., and fortunately for me I have yet to find something that I can digest that doesn’t have the appeal of a chemical toilet when it comes out of the wrapper. I don’t know the exact cause of this change in my flavor/olifactory senses, but while the thought of fast food is usually appealing I really genuinely do not like it once it is in front of me. And I’m not saying that to sound like this miraculously happy gastric bypass patient…..it really is true. So many “bad” foods still sound fantastic in theory, but when I taste them or smell them it is generally not a good time. One thing I HAVE eaten and enjoyed has been egg drop soup…..so I’ll need to check the nutritional value on that and maybe search for some recipes.

Anyway, Thanksgiving is over and for the first time in my life I didn’t gain weight during that week. Getting my walking up to six days per week will be my next goal……